Open letter to BlackBerry bosses: Senior RIM exec tells all as company crumbles around him

There’s no question Research In Motion is in the midst of a major transitional period. The company is planning to launch a brand new product line based on a brand new operating system within the next 12 months, and even though the first device born out of RIM’s new QNX OS was impressive in some ways, it was incomplete. There still is a chance for RIM to deliver some really interesting competitive products, but time is quickly running out, as we have written time and time again. The thing is, RIM has always been a company controlled by two people — Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. For all the things that have worked, they have missed the boat countless times and we’re now seeing the results.

We have received an open letter to Mike and Jim from a high-level RIM employee (whose identity we have verified), and in an amazingly honest and passionate plea, this letter gives fascinating insights into what RIM must fix, and fast. RIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read the open letter in its entirety after the break.

P.S. If you’re an employee of RIM and want to send us your thoughts and feelings on the company, you can send them to us via email or leave a comment below.

UPDATE: Following this post, RIM issued an official response to the letter below. The company’s full response can be viewed here.

UPDATE 2: BGR has exclusively published two additional letters from RIM employees. They can both be viewed here.

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To the RIM Senior Management Team:

I have lost confidence.

While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.

Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base. You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.

Before I get into the meat of the matter, I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us. Rather, I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing… for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack.

We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time. We urge you to make bold decisions about our organisational structure, about our culture and most importantly our products.

While we anxiously wait to see the details of the streamlining plan, here are some suggestions:

1) Focus on the End User experience

Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.

Let’s start an internal innovation revival with teams focused on what users will love instead of chasing “feature parity” and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example). When was the last time we pushed out a significant new experience or feature that wasn’t already on other platforms?

Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time — yes, on Exchange! This way we can understand why our users are switching and get inspiration as to how we can build our next-gen products even better! It’s incomprehensible that our top software engineers and executives aren’t using or deeply familiar with our competitor’s products.

2) Recruit Senior SW Leaders & enable decision-making

I’m going to say what everyone is thinking… We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated. Just look at who our major competitors are: Apple, Google & Microsoft. These are three of the biggest and most talented software companies on the planet. Then take a look at our software leadership teams in terms of what they have delivered and their past experience prior to RIM… It says everything.

3) Cut projects to the bone.

There is a serious need to consolidate our focus to just a handful of projects. Period.

We need to be disciplined here. We can’t afford any more initiatives based on carrier requests to squeeze out slightly more volume. Again, back to point #1, focus on the end users. They are the ones making both consumer & enterprise purchase decisions.

Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

On that note, we simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.

Look at Apple in 1997 for tips here. I really want you to watch this video because it has never been more relevant. It is our friend Steve Jobs in 97 and it may as well be you speaking to RIM employees and partners today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEXae1j6EY

4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us

We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. The return will be worth every cent. There is no polite way to say this, but it’s true — BlackBerry smartphone apps suck. Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps.

Developing for BlackBerry is painful, and despite what you’ve been told, things haven’t really changed that much since Jamie Murai’s letter. Our SDK / development platform is like a rundown 1990’s Ford Explorer. Then there’s Apple, which has a shiny new BMW M3… just such a pleasure to drive. Developers want and need quality tools.

If we create great tools, we will see great work. Offer shit tools and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see shit apps.

The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them. The solution? Recruit serious talent, buy SDK/API specialist companies, throw a truckload of money at it… Let’s do whatever it takes, and quickly!

5) Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire

25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing. I’ve never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn’t have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B.

Also an important note regarding our marketing: a product’s technical superiority does not equal desire, and therefore sales… How many Linux laptops are getting sold? How did Betamax go? My mother wants an iPad and iPhone because it is simple and appeals to her. Powerful multitasking doesn’t.

BlackBerry Messenger has been our standout, yet we wasted our marketing on strange stories from a barber shop to a horse wrangler. I promise you, this did nothing to help us in the mind of the average consumer.

We need an inventive and engaging campaign that focuses on what we are about. People buy into a brand / product not just because of features, but because of what it stands for and what it delivers to them. People don’t buy “what you do,” people buy “why you do it.” Take 3 minutes to watch the this video starting from the 2min mark: http://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4

6) No Accountability – Canadians are too nice

RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable. Where is the guy responsible for the 9530 software? Still with us, still running some important software initiative. We will never achieve excellence with this culture. Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out. We have far too many people in critical roles that fit this description. I can hear the cheers of my fellow employees now.

7) The press and analysts are pissing you off. Don’t snap. Now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia.

The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.

Yes, four years ago we beat Microsoft when everyone said Windows Mobile with Direct Push in Exchange would kill us. It didn’t… in fact we grew stronger.

However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won’t work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then. We are now 3-4 years too late. That is the painful truth… it was a major strategic oversight and we know who is responsible.

Jim, in referring to our current transition recently said: “No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform. It’s almost never done, and it’s way harder than you realize. This transition is where tech companies go to die.”

To avoid this death, perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO. There is no shame in no longer being a CEO. Mike, you could focus on innovation. Jim, you could focus on our carriers/customers… They are our lifeblood.

8) Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees — please!

Reach out to all employees asking them on how we can make RIM better. Encourage input from ground-level teams—without repercussions—to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.

Lastly, we’re all reading the news and many are extremely nervous, especially when we see people get fired. We need an injection of confidence: share your strategy and ask us for support. The headhunters have already started circling and we are at risk of losing our best people.

Now would be a great time to internally re-brand and re-energize the workplace. For example, rename the company to just “BlackBerry” to signify our new focus on one QNX product line. We should also address issues surrounding making RIM an enjoyable workplace. Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces.

The timing is perfect to seriously evaluate at our position and make these major changes. We can do it!

I am reading this on an iPhone. The most functional phone know to planet Earth. And I am typing this with one thumb on a virtual keyboard! Try that!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CKPCHX4CPO3FHTXT6BISWG6MOY David P

Re: “We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care.”

If for no other reason than the above statement, RIM is doomed. They had it; they lost it; they can’t help themselves. If they could have, they already would have.

Guest

Don’t discount the ability of Canadians to adapt. You’ll be amazed.

http://walterpike.com Walter Pike

This type of letter could be written in thousands of companies around the world. companies that are losing the race they all seem remarkably similar – its amazing how the cycle is repeated over and over again and management makes the same mistakes.

Nospam

It’s pretty much the generic answer to any company’s problem. Focus on your clients. Listen to your employees and customers. Get rid of middle management. New leadership is needed.

Mryanaz

As a 3rd party developer, I tried like crazy to introduce RIM to Smashtalk. Would it save the company? No. Would it add valuable differentiation? Absolutely. The only answer I got from RIM was a letter telling me that unsolicited patents were not accepted. “Not Invented Here” is just as much a killer as ignoring the bright internal people. RIM is a battleship that will take a while to sink. I recall Novell being in much the same position years ago and after a continuous string of very poor decision, including a refusal to listen to the bright people inside the company, it finally sank. I see the same fate for RIM. Leopards do not change spots. Jim and Mike will continue to do what they are doing and the political climate inside will do the rest. RIP RIM.

Online

This letter is 100% what rim employees think. As a ex rim employee I wish this letter was published 2 years ago. Bravo for this. Best regards

Ramses71

Yup… too true

Rockeramex86

Why doesn’t RIM get rid of the ‘Team Members’ that are making all of this fall apart….being nice and/or polite isnt guna make RIM successful!!!!!!!
Come on RIM, you could do it :)

Ramses71

That would mean that they would need to get rid of most of their middle-mgmt.. the ones that are actually shutting things down and stifling the employee creativity

Laurent Goderre

I think this is a remarkable piece of communication. Being a CEO that receives a letter like this, I would feel very proud that someone stood up like this for the company.

Everything he says it’s true> I do not see this as sad but inspirational….Client centric is essential, using social media to get from the users what they expect and wish for in a mobile device. Open innovation from within is also a great way to drastically improve the quality of products.

RIM has to really understand the world of mobile “computing” today, accept their place in the market and look for ways to gain momentum by offering no one else is. All is not lost, Blackberry still have very solid devices for example it’s not rare for someone to have a Blackberry for twice as long than an iPhone before it breaks, if it breaks at all. The other guys have weaknesses too and it’s time to go after them.

I hope this guys have a promotion because his vision could really help a good Canadian company become great!

Omar

Any ex-Nortel employees identify with parts of this letter in hindsight to their failed company? Say “I”

Guest

One of the reasons maybe because they hired too many ex-Nortel employees to become managers.

Anonymous

They should have been the ones receiving MS money instead of Nokia…

Laportillo

Eventhough it addresses the key problems that RIM faces… I think this is a fake letter from somebody outside RIM… a good to-do list though to be taken seriously.

Ramses71

it’s not fake… there’s enough info in there to show that it’s real. Us ex-RIM employees can see that easily enough.

Laportillo

Like for example? I couldn’t see anything that had not been discussed in reputable tech blogs…

Ramses71

for example,

1) “Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces” refers to the gun-metal blue of the office walls, carpets and tinted-windows (and windowless in many cases) in most of RIM Park in Waterloo.
2) “We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that
it won’t work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then.” Blackberry engineers had been working on RIM specific linux distro about 4 years ago which us corp types got wind of and scratched our heads at the time. QNX was also mentioned at the same time. This was below the radar of most people in the industry.
3) “We need to be disciplined here. We can’t afford any more initiatives
based on carrier requests to squeeze out slightly more volume” – refers mainly to AT&T and Rogers demands that for the most part consume a lot of developers time to change.
4) “Teams still aren’t talking together properly” – the “still” refers to RIM’s failed attempts (2004 to 2008 during their hiring growth) to breakdown the silo mentality that caused many projects to be delayed.

Ismanager

Rim is exactly where they put themselves. In 2009 they should have been competing. They still aren’t.

555

This guy/gal should be made CEO

Mark Rejhon

I’m Mark Rejhon, I’m a RIM shareholder, and I agree with this RIM employee.

RIM, please take the time to study this carefully (Even while you’re locking down your company for leaks, do not dismiss this message.) The QNX operating system has a lot of promise. Do not miss that opportunity.

QNX Please

As a RIM user, this letter is spot on. RIM’s last phone was released in what… August 2010, almost a year ago, delays are killing the company, as are incomplete products. The 4G playbook should of shipped with the wifi version period. RIM needs to take a serious look in the mirror, shed a lot of fat, hire some better employees and managers and stick to 4 products. The Curve, Bold, Storm (but new name please) and Playbook. The Torch, Pearl and that piece of crap flip phone Style need to be scrapped. The torch is obsolete now that the bold will have a touch screen. For god sakes, get QNX on the phones!

Also its a good thing the marketing director quit, no need to fire that idiot anymore.

Pwubsbamba

Very well said.

Bjones

“4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us
We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. ”
Are there developers out there developing for Blackberry? Where are you? I hear about iOS, Android, and WP7. You even hear about Intel Atom and WebOS. Nobody even seems to talks about Blackberry development. Is it too late? If you are developing for BB and want to write about how to do it, then talk to me – email me.

Dlam

There are a handfull. It’s like a small family :) Not making much money though, even in the top spots.

Nicholas

He’s right. I want to buy RIM products, I still own a BlackBerry, but RIM products just aren’t cutting it anymore. From marketing to design, the part of the product I see, RIM is simply being outdone. I bought a MacBook recently, and when it’s time for a new phone, I’ll probably exchange my BlackBerry for an iPhone. RIM doesn’t have a single product right now that I’m excited about, or really want, just a bunch that are functional and I’m familiar with.

I would love to be excited for RIM products again, to look at my bank account and make a decision that I probably shouldn’t simply because X product is SO cool.

http://twitter.com/reese23 reese23

Parts of this read more like a hard sell for Apple to hire him than it does an actual open letter to management. Apple is a very successful company for the (several) reasons he’s stated, but why would adopting their entire market philosophy and practice necessarily be a good thing for BB? It’s more or less as if he expected this letter to be leaked.

The mention of Flash as a feature no one wanted and the attempt to tie it to Android’s fragmentation have me especially skeptical. Linking to a Steve Jobs keynote was decidedly over the top.

Anonymous

Wouldn’t it make sense for Blackberry, a struggling company, to take a page from a wildly successful company (in the same market no less) that at one point was also struggling (to a greater degree even)?

Dlam

Dude, it’s an OPEN LETTER, it’s meant to be leaked.

Anonymous

I wrote a similar letter to this when I was at Nortel, trying to be all PC but making leading suggestions about hiring experienced manufacturing help to turn things around. It lead to a one on one meeting with a senior manager, whose arguments against change seemed to be the content of the latest Nortel press release. In that meeting alone, if she had taken my recommendations she’d have saved the company more than $280 million whereas her comments were of the pathway-to-world-domination sort. That meeting shortened my career at the company and we all know what happened to them in the end.
It’s easy to kick a company when they’re down but Apple was certainly worse off at times in their history. Denial is a powerful de-motivator when you like the comfort level of your office chair, so I hope they don’t make the same mistake.

http://www.grocio.com/ Gerald Buckley

What a CHICKEN SHIT!

Dude, if it’s THAT bad (and I have every reason to believe it is)… put your name on it. Own it. Be a friggin pirate. Own your opinion and lead the revolution. And, of course, if you’re one of the co-CEO’s writing this screed you had better pray to the Great Muskie Of The North you don’t get outted.

Asus125

I was a avid BB user, until they said my NEW BB would not upgradeable to the next OS. Now I have a new iPhone4 and when iOS 5 comes out in few months I don’t have to worry about it being obsolete. RIM decision killed on value added customer, how many more? RIM needs better leaders now before they become an Windows phone.

Nospam

Wait til your iPhone becomes the equivalent of the 2G, 3G or 3GS to Apple… RIM gave you the straight facts. If you want revolution, then that’s the cost. Guess what happened when Apple switched from the old MacOS to OSX? Or PowerPC to Intel?

Guest

It just happens that your iPhone 4 can upgrade. Wait till iOS 6 comes out and do you honestly still believe your iPhone 4 can run it? Go ask any iPhone 3 user and see how it can upgrade to iOS 5.

Hardware will become unsupported regardless of company – and unlike what you’ve said, a lot of Blackberries that used to run OS 5 could be upgraded to OS 6 when it came out.Just that from OS 6 to 7 is where a radical change happens.

Anonymous

The need to reinvent who we are never ends. Business is a group action that needs that in spades. Excellent letter.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/BH7UOUMSOUL6EV34V6THH6REZE channonm

Had this guy signed his name, just about every Fortune 500 company would be trying to hire him right now. Had this guy signed his name, the RIM board should appoint him to a senior position directing the turnaround. Unfortunately, he wimped out. And without taking a risk, he will remain a cog in the failing engine.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47XHGLZVO6IUYLMWVUYFVN5LQU Dr No

I bet you believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Anonymous

Had this guy signed his name he would have been frog marched out of the building and he would have trouble getting a job anywhere in the world. Corps like BBerry do not like being told where they are wrong, they like sycophants telling them they are right, even as the ship sinks into a sea of bad ideas.

Guest

“I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us” yet you cant send an email without it getting leaked? You’ll be expecting to be taken seriously?